Nina Simone CD Review
Nina Simone
Tell It Like It Is
Sony/BMG 86970 56822
****
Last year’s VERY BEST OF NINA SIMONE compilation enjoyed a lengthy stay in the UK album charts after television advertising campaigns had introduced I Got Life and My Baby Just Cares For Me to a mass audience. So, having acquired a taste for the exotic Ms Simone, the great British public can now feast on a double album featuring a tasty pot-pourri of the versatile black icon’s rarities and unreleased recordings from 1967-73. From her earliest singing performances, Nina Simone has defied categorisation, handling jazz, blues, soul, gospel, reggae – in fact any style – with equal aplomb and these unusual cuts provide compelling evidence of her vocal ability. The lady plays a mean piano, too, as demonstrated on the eight-minute jazz jam Jelly Roll and the title track.
There are emotional and personal songs – Nina couldn’t complete a live rendition of My Father since she had a difficult relationship with the man and What Have They Done To My Song, Ma?, indicated similar tensions surrounding her mother. Two contrasting versions of Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne are included, while the Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody is sung in Italian and Simone’s own To Be Young, Gifted And Black reflects her erstwhile sympathy for the Panthers. The eclectic nature of the selections gives a vivid picture of this complex artist which will intrigue and delight…her voice is pure black velvet. Bob Kilbey